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A blog written from the point of view of a martial arts beginner, which I am. You can find the full blog at http://yghmartialarts.blogspot.com. Here on AikiWeb, I'll post only those entries which are relevant to aikido.

A few weeks ago I introduced my small readership to a much better and much more famous online martial arts writer than myself, Rob Redmond of 24 Fighting Chickens. In that entry, I examined my own martial arts in light of one of Redmond's biggest criticisms of modern Shotokan karate practice: a failure to embrace martial artists' individual creativity.

As I continue to read Redmond's work, a few more recurring points are starting to jump out at me, and one in particular cuts very deep for a practitioner of aikido and taekwondo.

I must admit that one of my goals when I began martial arts training was to make myself into a better person. I have even suggested on this blog that the lofty moral goals of aikido and taekwondo justify my preference of them over more realistic and practical arts. So this crticism of Redmond's is a little more uncomfortable for me to turn on my own arts than the last.

Can aikido and taekwondo really make me into a better person? What if they can't--have I wasted the last year-and-a-half?

But I can't shake the feeling that aikido and taekwondo have changed me in some way. In "In the Presence of Mine Enemies", I suggested that I have found more perseverance and discipline in myself in the time I have been training. It's nothing revolutionary or life-changing, perhaps, but I think I'm a little more likely to hit the gym, empty the dishwasher, or take out the trash than I used to be.

Redmond, though, would caution that none of this makes me a more moral person (see the second 24FC article link above). The willingness to persevere through displeasure or discomfort in pursuit of a goal can be used to acheive good or evil, depending on the goal.

Another thing I think has improved a little in the time I have been training is my confidence. This is probably the biggest martial arts selling point; nearly every for-profit dojo or dojang in the country promises to improve your children's confidence. But confidence, like self-discipline, says Redmond, is amoral. Confidence can lead to bullying and snobbery just as surely as it can lead to championing any noble cause.

So far, I have determined that I have perhaps increased in perseverance and confidence some small bit through martial arts training. Anything else? What about the other popular claims martial arts instructors like to make? Have I become less violent? More respectful? More resistant to temptation? A better citizen? A better husband?

Honestly, I don't think so. For my part, I have noticed no such thing.

The best I can say of the martial arts, then, is that they give us tools. Perhaps I can use these tools to affect positive changes in myself and the world around me, but I can just as easily use them selfishly and perhaps become an even less moral person than I was before I began.

The only conclusion to be drawn here is that my martial arts are only as noble and moral as I am. Rather than expecting to find morality in the martial arts, I should be looking for it in myself and bringing it with me to the dojo.

We don't have a scale with which to measure morality, so we can't say what makes us more moral people. I happen to agree, I don't think a martial art does make one more (or less) moral, but the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. Redmond states that he does not believe karate makes one more moral, but also admits there's no way to assess it in the first place.
The examples in your blog post aren't numerous enough to be statistically significant, if we really want to be scientific.

Right. Shadowfax and I are in agreement here. Aikido gives us tools that we can use to improve ourselves, but it is up to us to use those tools properly. We are free to use them improperly, or not at all, if we like.

I think rather than changing a person it has a way of enhancing and bringing out what is already there. It does not change you so much as it hones you. So someone coming to aikido to find a greater morality are probably already moral people, aikido simply enhances that. If a person does not already have the desire to change aikido won't change them. But I think it can be a tool for self improvement and change to those who are looking for that.

I've been reading Rob's stuff for years now. IMO he knows what he's talking about. Unfortunately a lot of people are frightened and angered at the sound of bursting bubbles and don't look deeper. Martial arts don't make you a more moral person, but you may become so in the course of living your life (of which martial arts training may be a part).